Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

A leadership approach: Eyes on, hands off. Also, how to be a subordinate leader.

More here about that.

By , a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy.
6189923681_579653836e_o
6189923681_579653836e_o

 

 

More here about that.

Speaking of leadership, it is interesting that most people are of course subordinate leaders, yet there is very little written about how to actually be one. Retired Army Lt. Gen. James Dubik offers some helpful thoughts in the April issue of ARMY magazine. Learn how to do tasks for your boss so he or she can focus on doing the things only he or she can do. Define progress as “making new mistakes.”

In the same issue, retired Army Maj. Donald Vandegriff explains why the Army is having a hard time implementing a “mission command” approach. “Before a culture of Mission Command succeeds … the Army must possess the moral courage to identify countless barriers and then tear them down.” Bottom line: The Army has to stop teaching what to think and instead teach how to think. (By the way, the former is training, the latter is education. But the Army doesn’t have a Training and Education Command, does it?)

In the meantime, more here on military professionalism from a smart, well-read, Australian brigadier.

Photo credit: Flickr

Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1

Read More On Military

More from Foreign Policy

Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.
Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.

Chinese Hospitals Are Housing Another Deadly Outbreak

Authorities are covering up the spread of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.
Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.

Henry Kissinger, Colossus on the World Stage

The late statesman was a master of realpolitik—whom some regarded as a war criminal.

A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.
A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.

The West’s False Choice in Ukraine

The crossroads is not between war and compromise, but between victory and defeat.

Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi
Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi

The Masterminds

Washington wants to get tough on China, and the leaders of the House China Committee are in the driver’s seat.